Egypt's captain Ahmed Abdelhay vs home team Slovakia's block
Bratislava, Slovakia, July 4, 2015 – Montenegro and Egypt will play for the Final here in Bratislava on Sunday to get a ticket for the Group 2 of FIVB World League next year. While the gold final is set for 20.30 local time, the bronze will be played at 17.30 by home team Slovakia and China.
Montenegro beat China 3-1 (25-21, 25-21, 22-25, 25-15) to enter their first World League final ever. The team coached by former Serbian player Slobodan Boskan got in at full throttle in this final tournament and China was too faulty to resist the powerful volleyball of the Balkan team: China lost their first match in the 2015 World League, presenting a young and talented team but with not so much experience.
Home team Slovakia missed some key players, but coach Flavio Gulinelli was very clear from the beginning: “It’s not respectful for the players talking too much about the absents”. Egypt was stronger at the end, closing the semifinal 1-3 (23-25, 25-22, 25-27, 23-25) in front of 3.000 spectators cheering for the opponents.
Key Points
• Slovakia is back after 4 years as organizer. They hosted in the city of Košice the European League. Their team won the event.
• Montenegro is the absolute beginner of the World League. As a rookie squad, their start is astonishing: they won Pool F, foregoing Turkey, Puerto Rico and Tunisia, losing only one match against Turkey.
• With 74 spikes, 7 blocks, 4 aces captain Vojn Cacic was Montenegro team leader in the Intercontinental round.
• China planned their second World League campaign in a row this year. The goal was to improve the third place they got in 2014 in Group 3, but they missed the target today.
• China was the only team in Group 3 of this year's World League without a defeat, winning each of their six matches until today loss.
• Emanuel Kohut has scored 10+ points in all of Slovakia's matches this campaign. He is one of four players in Group 3 to have achieved this feat alongside Kervin Martin Piñerua Urbina (VEN, 6 matches), Mitar Tzourits (GRE, 3) and Sergio Noda Blanco (ESP, 6).
• After losing their 2015 World League opening to Spain (3-2), Egypt have won the remaining six matches included today.